I just watched Freakonomics on Netflix Instant Watch. There was some really interesting stuff there, like the theory about Roe v. Wade being responsible for most of the 90s’ drop in crime rate. But having read Punished by Rewards, the stuff about incentives was depressing.

Watched the original Tron this weekend. It was hilarious. I can’t remember a single technological assertion in there which had anything remotely to do with reality. Fun stuff. Tron: Legacy is up next from Netflix later this week.

I watched Timecop last night on Netflix Instant Watch. Wow was it horrible. Though I suppose it was probably a little bit better than The Art of War, since I watched the whole thing rather than stopping it and removing it from my instant queue five minutes in. Hey look at that, IMDb users agree with me: 5.6/10 for Timecop vs. 5.5/10 for The Art of War.

This is one I’ve wanted to watch ever since I heard about it (I can’t remember exactly how; I think I saw a preview for it on some independent film channel or something). We have had it from Netflix for a few months but never got around to watching it until a couple nights ago. Just posting this to say that Unknown White Male is a fascinating film which I think many people would like.

Forgot to mention here the awesome deal I got at Toys ‘R Us last week. In the ad last week they were offering a $25 gift card for buying Super Mario Galaxy. I figured I would get it anyway but was intending to wait, until I saw that. My wife had also clipped a coupon for a $10 gift card with a $75 purchase. After looking through most of the store for something to push us over the $75 mark so we could take advantage of both offers, we went to the video games section and I mentioned that I had intended to get Zack & Wiki before too long anyway. So we picked that up and when we got to the counter the guy told us Wii games were buy 2, get one free. Sweet! So I also got Metroid Prime 3: Corruption–they were out of Fire Emblem and Super Paper Mario.

I just got back from an advance screening of the new Disney movie, Enchanted. Going into it I had seen the previews and I wasn’t expecting that much; it seemed like it would be that stupid kind of try-too-hard comedy that you find in movies like The Animal. I was pleasantly surprised; it is over-the-top, but it is quite intentional and it’s a well-executed tongue-in-cheek, poking fun at itself and the clichés of the princess-fairy-tale genre.

Well, I haven’t written much here lately. I guess I kind of wonder sometimes what to write about, even though I have things on my mind. There is a fear of having ideas stolen if I reveal too much here, and so, about things I’m creating, I say little or nothing. Mundane things often seem too mundane to write… etc.

So New York is about to pass a bill hoping to help keep children from being exposed to violence in videogames. It’s probably going to end up in courts on grounds of violating freedom of speech, and that’s as it should be. It’s completely ridiculous for these legislators to be regulating something about which they know nothing*.

Everything’s going on, really; I’ve been too busy to write here, and at the same time it seems like I don’t even know what I’ve been doing. Painting a few rooms in the house. Saw Shrek 3, which I liked. More pain and swelling at the bottom right part of my mouth where my wisdom teeth were; the doctor says I probably got some bit of food in there and then my body healed over it and is now treating it like a splinter. Reorganization at work again, but for the first time it actually affects me. Etc.

Party A on FFXII (Ashe, Vaan, and Fran) are level 40 and Party B (Basch, Balthier, and Penelo) are 38. They all have every augment on the license board and everybody has all three Quickenings. Two characters have one Esper each (Vaan and Penelo), and I know the locations of two other Espers, though each handed me my ass (and I wasn’t even aware I’d dropped it).